| North Sydney AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  Interactive map of electorate boundaries from the2016 federal election until its abolition in 2025 | |||||||||||||||
| Created | 1901 | ||||||||||||||
| Abolished | 2025 | ||||||||||||||
| MP | Kylea Tink | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Independent | ||||||||||||||
| Namesake | North Sydney | ||||||||||||||
| Electors | 117,710 (2022) | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 53 km2 (20.5 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Demographic | Inner metropolitan | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Footnotes | |||||||||||||||
TheDivision of North Sydney was anAustralian electoral division in thestate ofNew South Wales.
On 12 September 2024, theAustralian Electoral Commission announced that the seat would be abolished at the2025 Australian federal election,[1] with its electors redistributed toWarringah,Bradfield andBennelong.[a]
The Division of North Sydney was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of theoriginal 75 divisions contested at thefirst federal election. It originally stretched as far as theNorthern Beaches, though much of that area becameWarringah in 1922.
Second only to the nearbyDivision of Wentworth, the Division of North Sydney has the nation's second-highest proportion (56.4%) of high-income families.[2]
North Sydney and Wentworth are the only two federation divisions in New South Wales to have never been held by Labor. The Liberal hold on the seat was broken in1990 by "father of theindependents"Ted Mack, who had represented much of the area instate parliament from 1981 to 1988. He held the seat for two terms before retiring at the1996 election, after two terms, for the same reason he previously chose to resign from state parliament after two terms − to avoid receiving a parliamentary pension.[3]
However, during Mack's tenure, North Sydney was always on the stronger side of fairly safe for the Liberals in "traditional"two-party-preferred match-ups with Labor, and it was a foregone conclusion that it would revert to the Liberals once Mack retired. Indeed, when Mack retired in 1996,Joe Hockey reclaimed the seat for the Liberals on a swing large enough to revert the seat to its traditional status as a comfortably safe Liberal seat. Hockey held it easily until 2015, serving asTreasurer from 2013 to 2015 in theAbbott government. After Abbott was ousted as Liberal leader and Prime Minister byMalcolm Turnbull in theSeptember 2015 Liberal leadership spill Hockey moved to thebackbench, but six days later he announced his intention to resign from parliament, taking effect from 23 October. The2015 North Sydney by-election was held on 5 December to elect his replacement.
Trent Zimmerman, a former Hockey staffer,[4] retained the seat for the Liberal Party with 48.2 percent of the primary vote after a larger-than-predicted 12.8 percent swing against theTurnbull Coalition government.[5] That was only the second time in North Sydney since federation that the successful Liberal candidate had not obtained a majority of the primary vote and had to rely on preferences. Zimmerman faced a double-digit primary vote swing − more than triple that of the2015 Canning by-election − even though Labor did not even contest the seat.[2]
The Liberaltwo-candidate-preferred vote of 60.2 percent againstindependent Stephen Ruff compares to the previous election vote of 65.9 percent against Labor.[2] The reduction of 5.7 percent could not be considered a "two-party/candidate preferredswing" − when a major party is absent, preference flows to both major parties does not take place, resulting in asymmetric preference flows.[6][7]
Zimmerman became the firstopenly LGBTI member of the House of Representatives.[5][8] He won the seat in his own right in 2016 and 2019. However, in 2022, he lost over 13 percent of his primary vote amid the Liberals' collapse in the North Shore and other "blue ribbon" areas of metropolitan Australia, and was defeated byteal independentKylea Tink, the second non-Liberal ever to win it. The swing against the Liberals was large enough to make the seat marginal in a "traditional" two-party contest between the Liberals and Labor for the first time in 60 years; on paper, the Liberal margin over Labor was only 1.2 percent.
The most notable member for the seat wasBilly Hughes,Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923, and later a minister in theLyons,Page,Menzies andFadden governments. Hughes is the longest-serving parliamentarian in Australian history. He transferred toBradfield after it was carved out of North Sydney's northern portion in 1949, and died as that seat's member in 1952. Other notable members include Mack, Hockey, andDugald Thomson, a minister in theReid Government.
As part of its periodic review of electoral boundaries, theAustralian Electoral Commission abolished the division from the2025 Australian federal election, with its electors distributed across the divisions of Warringah, Bradfield and Bennelong.[9]
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.[10]
Located alongSydney'sLower North Shore, the division is named after the suburb ofNorth Sydney. It also includes the suburbs ofArtarmon,Cammeray,Castlecrag,Crows Nest,Greenwich,Henley,Hunters Hill,Huntleys Cove,Huntleys Point,Kirribilli,Lane Cove,Lane Cove North,Lane Cove West,Lavender Bay,Linley Point,Longueville,McMahons Point,Middle Cove,Milsons Point,Naremburn,North Willoughby,Northbridge,Northwood,Riverview,St Leonards,Waverton,Willoughby,Willoughby East,Wollstonecraft, andWoolwich; as well as parts ofChatswood,Chatswood West,Cremorne,Gladesville,Gore Hill andNeutral Bay.
| Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dugald Thomson (1849–1922) | Free Trade | 29 March 1901 – 1906 | Previously held theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly seat ofWarringah. Served as minister underReid. Retired | |
| Anti-Socialist | 1906 – 26 May 1909 | ||||
| Liberal | 26 May 1909 – 19 February 1910 | ||||
.jpg) | George Edwards (1855–1911) | 13 April 1910 – 4 February 1911 | Previously held the Division ofSouth Sydney. Died in office | ||
 | (Sir) Granville Ryrie (1865–1937) | 11 March 1911 – 17 February 1917 | Previously held theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly seat ofQueanbeyan. Transferred to the Division ofWarringah | ||
| Nationalist | 17 February 1917 – 16 December 1922 | ||||
.jpg) | Billy Hughes (1862–1952) | 16 December 1922 – September 1929 | Previously held the Division ofBendigo. Served asPrime Minister from1915to 1923. Served as minister underLyons,Page,Menzies andFadden. Served asleader of the United Australia Party from1941 to1943. Transferred to the Division ofBradfield | ||
| Independent Nationalist | September 1929 – 2 December 1929 | ||||
| Australian | 2 December 1929 – 7 May 1931 | ||||
| United Australia | 7 May 1931 – 14 April 1944 | ||||
| Independent | 14 April 1944 – 13 September 1945 | ||||
| Liberal | 13 September 1945 – 10 December 1949 | ||||
 | William Jack (1890–1982) | 10 December 1949 – 31 October 1966 | Retired | ||
.jpg) | Bill Graham (1919–1995) | 26 November 1966 – 19 September 1980 | Previously held the Division ofSt George. Retired | ||
 | John Spender (1935–2022) | 18 October 1980 – 24 March 1990 | Lost seat | ||
 | Ted Mack (1933–2018) | Independent | 24 March 1990 – 29 January 1996 | Previously held theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly seat ofNorth Shore. Retired | |
 | Joe Hockey (1965–) | Liberal | 2 March 1996 – 23 October 2015 | Served as minister underHoward andAbbott. Resigned to retire from politics | |
 | Trent Zimmerman (1968–) | 5 December 2015 – 21 May 2022 | Lost seat.First openly LGBTI member of the House of Representatives | ||
.png) | Kylea Tink (1970–) | Independent | 21 May 2022 – 3 May 2025 | Retired after North Sydney was abolished in 2025 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Trent Zimmerman | 36,956 | 38.05 | −13.91 | |
| Independent | Kylea Tink | 24,477 | 25.20 | +25.20 | |
| Labor | Catherine Renshaw | 20,835 | 21.45 | −3.63 | |
| Greens | Heather Armstrong | 8,308 | 8.55 | −5.07 | |
| United Australia | Robert Nalbandian | 1,730 | 1.78 | +0.49 | |
| Sustainable Australia | William Bourke | 1,163 | 1.20 | −0.69 | |
| One Nation | Michael Walls | 1,149 | 1.18 | +1.18 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Dajen Tinkler | 1,123 | 1.16 | +1.16 | |
| TNL | Victor Kline | 886 | 0.91 | +0.91 | |
| Informed Medical Options | Lesley Kinney | 491 | 0.51 | +0.51 | |
| Total formal votes | 97,118 | 94.98 | −0.98 | ||
| Informal votes | 5,138 | 5.02 | +0.98 | ||
| Turnout | 102,256 | 91.55 | −0.85 | ||
| Notionaltwo-party-preferred count | |||||
| Liberal | Trent Zimmerman | 49,781 | 51.26 | −8.01 | |
| Labor | Catherine Renshaw | 47,337 | 48.74 | +8.01 | |
| Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
| Independent | Kylea Tink | 51,392 | 52.92 | +52.92 | |
| Liberal | Trent Zimmerman | 45,726 | 47.08 | −12.19 | |
| Independentgain fromLiberal | |||||
Y indicates at what stage the winning candidate had over 50% of the votes and was declared the winner.33°48′58″S151°11′02″E / 33.816°S 151.184°E /-33.816; 151.184